The Emergence of a Circular Additive Manufacturing Ecosystem from a Circular Economy Initiative

Paper in proceeding, 2023

This research delves into sustainable entrepreneurs' challenges and opportunities in establishing circular businesses in the current linear economy business ecosystems. Sustainable entrepreneurs can thrive and successfully implement circular businesses by strategically navigating these linear economic constraints. We have identified the key strategies these sustainable entrepreneurs employ by longitudinal process study of the circular additive manufacturing ecosystem that spans Portugal and Sweden. These include manipulating, avoiding, conforming, and aligning partners to form circular
economy ecosystems. Our findings highlight the importance of resource alignment, partner engagement, and constraint-specific strategies in enabling the emergence of circular economy ecosystems. Our study takes a process-oriented approach to explore the dynamics of distributed agency, organizational change, and the formation of new organizations. This sheds light on why and how circular ecosystems emerge. Ultimately, our research contributes to sustainable and circular economy and business ecosystem literature and process studies.